In 206 BC, after the Battle of Xiangyu Julu became famous, he led an army closer to Hangu Pass and drove Liu Bang, who wanted to be the king of Guanzhong, to Bashu and occupied Guanzhong. At this time, after three years of anti-Qin war, Xiang Yu and the princes finally overthrew the rule of the Qin Dynasty.
After the Battle of the Giant Deer, Xiang Yu seized real power in the world and commanded the princes of the world, at this time he faced a thorny problem, how to share the fruits of victory with the princes of the world. Of course, Xiang Yu could also emulate Qin Shi Huang, implement the centralized system, and become emperor himself, but Xiang Yu did not, he followed the old path of King Wu of Zhou, on the merits of rewards, and shared the world with meritorious people. From this point of view, Xiang Yu's sub-sealing should be fair and just, as long as he has meritorious service in destroying Qin, he can be rewarded. Why would such a generous leader, after he had divided the princes, cause the princes to revolt?
(1) How is Xiang Yu divided?
The principle of Xiang Yu's division of the seal is "sealing the king by merit", as the name suggests, it is divided according to the size of the merit of the meritorious person. Xiang Yu thought that the heroes were the generals who participated in the Battle of julu and entered the pass with him, and also had to take the Chu state as the ally, and those generals who participated in the battle of the giant deer and did not follow him into the pass were not eligible to be crowned king of the split land. Therefore, the sub-sealing conference presided over by Xiang Yu is a bit like the stolen goods distribution conference, the robbers have always received rewards from the witnesses, and Xiang Yu's sub-sealing is mainly divided into four levels.
King Xiang established himself as the King of Western Chu, Wang Jiu Commandery (王九郡), and Du Pengcheng (都彭城). - "History of Xiang Yu Benji"
The first echelon of the Righteous Emperor XiongXin, Xiong Xin is a descendant of the monarch of the State of Chu during the Warring States period, after the outbreak of the peasant revolt at the end of Qin, Xiang Yu's uncle and nephew set up a puppet monarch, he is the nominal monarch of the State of Chu, has no real power. When Xiang Yu was enfeoffed as the 18th Route Princes, Yaozun Chu King Xiongxin was called "Yi Emperor", nominally raising The Chu King Xiongxin to a higher level, but in fact, it was Ming Sheng and secretly descending, Xiang Yu later found an excuse to move Yi Emperor to the remote Chenxian County, and Yidi finally died in Chenxian County.
The second echelon of the Western Chu overlord Xiang Yu, after the Battle of Xiang Yu Giant Deer, threatened the world, and the princes all hugged his thighs. At this time, Xiang Yu proclaimed himself the king of Western Chu and established a capital in his hometown of Pengcheng, ruling nine counties and occupying almost a quarter of the country's territory.
The third echelon went north to rescue Zhao, and at the same time followed Xiang Yu into the pass, and Xiang Yu gave the rich land to the generals who followed him into the pass, such as the King of Three Qin, the King of Yan, the King of Changshan, Zhang Er, the King of Qi, Tian Du, the King of Jibei, and the King of Jiujiang.
The fourth shaving team was the worst among Xiang Yu's sub-seals, such as Liu Bang, Zhao Xie, Tian Shi, Han Guang, etc., liu Bang was jealous of him and drove him to the remote Bashu because Xiang Yu was jealous of him. Some of the others were descendants of the original Six Kings, and some were anti-Qin neutral and had already been granted the title of Restored Kingdom before Xiang Yu was divided.
Li Pei was the King of Han, and Wang Ba, Shu, and Hanzhong were all southern Zheng. King Xie of Zhao became the acting king. Han Guang, the King of Yan, was the King of Liaodong. - "History of Xiang Yu Benji"
Xiang Yu is roughly divided into the above categories, in fact, in essence, Xiang Yu is not wrong, but Xiang Yu presided over the completion of the sealing conference in April, and in May the State of Qi fell into civil unrest, followed by a fight between various places, the reason for their rebellion is that Xiang Yu is unfair to the world, so what problems have occurred in Xiang Yu's sealing?
(2) Xiang Yu was divided into nepotism
Chen Ping once said that Xiang Yu did not trust outsiders, only trusting the Xiang family and his wife's brothers. Xiang Yu is not only nepotistic in the reuse of talents, but also when he divides the princes, the author can give you an example.
King Xiang could not believe in people, and the love he gave was not the Kundi of His wife, although there were Qishi who could not be used, Ping Nai went to Chu. - "History of Xiang Yu Benji"
A major feature of Xiang Yu's fencing was that the generals who followed him into the customs were given a rich land, while those who were not familiar with him or had festivals with him were assigned to remote areas, or even not sealed.
The most typical of these were the Zhao, Yan, and Qi states, and Xiang Yu moved the original Kings of Zhao, Yan, and Qi to remote places, and sealed the generals sent by these princes to rich lands.
In addition, the biggest mistake of Xiang Yu's sealing was to lose the sealing of three meritorious ministers.
The first is Tian Rong, Tian Rong is the clan of the Qi dynasty, after the outbreak of the peasant uprising at the end of Qin, Tian Dan (Tian Rong's cousin) of the Tian family was the first to raise an army to pacify Qidi, and after Tian Rong was killed in battle, Tian Rong collected remnants to continue to fight against the Qin army. Therefore, Tian Rong made great contributions in the battle to destroy Qin, but due to his previous disagreement with Xiang Yu's uncle Xiang Liang, which affected his relationship with Xiang Yu, Xiang Yu did not seal him.
In addition to the lost Tian Rong, there were Chen Yu of the Zhao State and Peng Yue, who raised an army in Liangdi. After the outbreak of the peasant revolt at the end of Qin, Peng Yue and Chen Yu both had meritorious service in resisting Qin, but they could not meet the standards of Xiang Yu's sub-title of prince, so they were not awarded.
It can be seen from this that as long as they are close to Xiang Yu and at the same time make meritorious contributions, they all get a good place, while those who are not familiar with him or are not in harmony with him are sealed to remote areas, and they are not even granted.
(3) Xiang Yu's sub-sealing lacked political strategy
Xiang Yu's division of the seal lacked foresight, mainly reflected in the wrong sealing of the Three Qin Kings and the surrender of the Han, Xiang Yu was a very good military expert, but he did not consider the political strategy.
First, the Three Qin Kings were mistakenly sealed
The Three Qin Kings were three Qin generals who surrendered to Chu led by Zhang Handan, namely Zhang Handan the Yong King, Sima Xin the King of Sai, and Dong Feng the King of Zhai, with Zhang Handan as the main general in the Battle of Julu and the other two as deputy generals. After the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Zhang Handan Julu, he led 200,000 Qin troops to surrender to Chu, and Xiang Yu, fearing that the Qin army would surrender fraudulently, ordered all the surrendered troops to be killed.
Xiang Yu later divided Guanzhong into three, and divided the three descending generals of the Battle of julu into Guanzhong, Xiang Yu did not expect that the 200,000 descending troops he killed were all the sons of Guanzhong's father and elder, and the people of Qindi hated the three descending generals to the bone, and Xiang Yu's strategy of "ruling Qin with Qin" did not work.
Second, give it to Han
After Liu Bang entered Guanzhong, he sent troops to guard Hangu Pass, the purpose was not to let Xiang Yu enter the pass, he wanted to be the king of Guanzhong, Liu Bang's move exposed his political motives, if Xiang Yu had a strategy, Liu Bang would not be able to escape death, but Xiang Yu spared Liu Bang at the Hongmen banquet.
Xiang Yu originally sealed Liu Bang to the remote land of Bashu, but later Zhang Liang bribed Xiang Bo and asked Xiang Yu to ask Xiang Yu to give Hanzhong to Liu Bang, but Xiang Yu did not blame Xiang Bo for accepting bribes, and also sealed the land of Hanzhong to Liu Bang. Handing over to Han was a major failure for Xiang Yu to divide the seal. When Liu Bang sent heavy troops to guard Hangu Pass, Xiang Yu should have understood that after the fall of the Qin state, the Liu and Xiang families had evolved from former allies into two opposing military groups, and he should guard Against Liu Bang everywhere, rather than sealing the strategic place of Hanzhong to Liu Bang, Hanzhong was a springboard for Liu Bang to later determine the Three Qins, without Hanzhong there would be no future Han Gaozu.
The king of Han gave Liang Jin Baiyi, Zhu Erdou, and Liang Zhi to sacrifice Xiang Bo. The King of Han also left Behind Xiang Bo because of Ling Lianghou, so he invited Hanzhongdi. King Xiang was Xu Zhi and was given the land of Hanzhong. - "The Chronicle of the Liuhou Family"
(4) The Xiangyu sub-sealing system collapsed in an instant
Xiang Yu divided the 18 princes of the road, did not bring peace to the world, he presided over the completion of the division of the seal in April, Tian Rong rebelled in May, 18 princely states, 11 major chaos.
First, the Yan kingdom and the Liaodong state were in chaos
Xiang Yu divided the Yan kingdom into two, drove the old Yan king Han Guang to Liaodong, became the king of Liaodong, and gave the rich land of the Yan state to Han Guang's subordinate general Zang Di (Han Guang sent him to follow Xiang Yu into the pass).
Han Guang, the King of Yan, was the King of Liaodong. Yan saved Zang Di from Chu to rescue Zhao, because he entered the customs from Chu. Li Di became the King of Yan. - The Book of Han · Biography of Chen Shengxiang
The old Yan king Han Guang was not convinced, he thought that the new Yan king Zang Di was once his subordinate, but the reward was higher than his own, the key was to send him into the pass himself, Xiang Yu actually named him the King of Yan, and he was the King of Liaodong, and the grade was lower.
The old Yan king Han Guang did not want to move to the remote Liaodong kingdom, so the new and old Yan kings fought each other, and as a result, the old Yan king could not defeat the new Yan king, and finally the soldiers were defeated and killed.
Second, the Zhao Kingdom was in chaos
Xiang Yu divided the Zhao kingdom into two, drove the old Zhao king Zhao Xie to Daidi, became the daiwang, and made Zhang Er, a general sent by the Zhao kingdom to follow him into the pass, as the king of Changshan, and the fief was a relatively rich place centered on Handan.
King Xie of Zhao had no opinion, but his subordinate Chen Yu was not happy, so he borrowed troops from Tian Rong, who was also dissatisfied with the division of the seal, to beat Zhang Er, drive Zhang Er out of the Zhao Kingdom, and then welcome back the old King of Zhao, who thanked Chen Yu for being the acting king.
Third, the country of Qi is in chaos
The State of Qi, as in the case of the State of Zhao and the State of Yan, Xiang Yu drove the old King of Qi to Jiaodong to be the King of Jiaodong, and crowned the generals sent by the Original King of Qi to follow him into the customs as the King of Qi, and then he established another King of Jibei, and the State of Qi was divided into three parts by Xiang Yu. Tian Rong, the patriarch of the Qi dynasty, was not happy, and he also made great contributions against Qin, but he did not grant the title, so he rebelled against Chu, killed all the three Qi kings who xiang Yu had divided, and established himself as the king of Qi.
Tian Rong was furious and pursued and killed The King of Qi, Yu Jimo, and also attacked and killed Wang An of Jibei. Therefore, Tian Rongnai established himself as the king of Qi and merged the land of the three Qi. - "History of Tian Danlie"
Fourth, Liu Bangyu Wong's profit
Just when the princes of various places were fighting each other in a mess, Xiang Yu was very entangled, who did he want to destroy first? Liu Bang's adviser Zhang Liang knew that Xiang Yu's first fire was fierce, so he designed to direct the first fire to Tian Rong, and Xiang Yu sent an army to attack Tian Rong in August of the Han Dynasty.
Liu Bang took advantage of Xiang Yu's rebellion in the State of Qi, Ren Hanxin killed the general back to Guanzhong, the Three Qin Kings committed suicide in defeat, and after Liu Bang occupied Guanzhong, he led a coalition of 560,000 princes to occupy Pengcheng, the capital of the Western Chu State of Xiangyu, thus opening the prelude to the Chu-Han struggle for hegemony.
In August, the King of Han used Han Xin's strategy to return from his hometown and attack the Yong King Zhang Handan. - "Historiography of Takazu Honki"
The main reason why Liu Bang was able to return the Three Qins was that Xiang Yu was trapped in Qi and could not get out, creating a great opportunity for Liu Bang to do his own business.
After the collapse of Xiang Yu's division, nearly half of the princes who were conferred the title died in the rebellion, some of the princes surrendered to Han during the Chu-Han War, and some of the princes annihilated during the Northern Expedition of Han Xin, and by the late stage of the Chu-Han War, there were few princes left in Xiang Yu's initial division.
In fact, on the surface, it is unfair to divide the seals of Xiang Yu, which is actually related to the internal relationship of the sub-sealing system. Xiang Yu followed the example of the Western Zhou Dynasty and implemented the system of sub-feudalism, and he could not see the historical significance brought by Qin Shi Huang's unification of the Six Kingdoms.
During the Warring States period, the princes were separated and fought with each other, which was the drawback brought about by the sub-feudal system, and when the princes became strong, it was difficult for the central government to control. Xiang Yu was not a mature politician, and he could not rationally judge the advantages and disadvantages of the sub-feudal system and the county system.
During the Warring States period, the common people always hoped that a hero could save the people from the bitter sea and end the perennial war, and the appearance of Qin Shi Huang gave them hope. It is a pity that after Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, he did not implement benevolent government, and the people's life was still very difficult, but we cannot deny qin shi huang's merits, we can only say that he has made meritorious achievements in unification and has governed.
References: "History", "Book of Han", etc